Amarinder Singh was in Kharar to dedicate Chandigarh-Kharar elevated corridor to citizens. (File)
Slamming the Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party president Ashwani Sharma, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday said the BJP is running "false propaganda" on the law and order situation of the state, indicating the party's fear of complete annihilation in the upcoming civic polls.
Mr Singh was in Kharar on Thursday to dedicate the Chandigarh-Kharar elevated corridor to citizens. "The state BJP's request to the Governor for postponement of the civic polls on the baseless grounds of law and order situation collapse showed that the party leadership was in a complete panic at the prospect of facing the elections at a time when the people were angry at them over the "black farm laws"," the Chief Minister said
"Faced with the wrath of the people of Punjab, Ashwani and his party colleagues were now resorting to desperate measures to wriggle out of the polls," he added.
Rejecting BJP's charges on the Congress party of damaging mobile towers and the resultant loss of studies to the students, Mr Singh asserted, "Are we responsible for the farmers' angst against the BJP? We were not the ones who enacted the farm laws, it was the BJP-led central government. We, in fact, negated them by passing the amendment bills in the Assembly."
He further claimed that following his appeals and the strict warning to those damaging property, the number of such incidents had come down drastically. "Only a couple of incidents of minor damage were reported today. The situation is now under control, with most of the damaged towers already repaired," he stated.
Trashing the state BJP leaders' claims that the central government had accepted the demands of the farmers from the outset, he explained, "Had their demands been conceded, the farmers would not have been sitting out in the winter chill at Delhi's borders. The power-hungry BJP leaders had remained untouched even by the fact that some 50 protesting farmers had died, including some by suicide."
Replying to a question regarding local bodies elections in the state, the Chief Minister said that the process is already underway and the dates would be finalised and announced soon. "The government is bound to hold these elections before February 15, 2021," he said.